Westbourne Motorsport kicked off their 2018 campaign with a season-opening Michelin Clio Cup Series double-header at Silverstone this weekend [24-25 March], with all six drivers in both classes signalling their intentions to compete at the front this season with a solid haul of points.
Hillnic Homes-backed rookie Ronan Pearson led the Worthing-based outfits charge during qualifying on Saturday, securing a second row starting slot alongside experienced contender and team-mate, Ben Colburn.
Though the former Junior Saloon Car Championship racer would be denied a podium finish on his series debut, he held his own nevertheless against a host of more experienced opposition and took two strong points finishes across the weekend.
Colburn was also unfortunate to be denied a visit to the rostrum, with a brief lock-up at Brooklands hampering his charge during the opening race and, though he set the fastest lap on the penultimate lap of the final contests, Simon Freeman was just able to hold on to third.
Another newcomer to the 2.0 litre, third-generation Clio Cup car, Finlay Robinson, also continued his development curve with consistent pace and a solid points finish with eighth in the opener, before unfortunate contact whilst avoiding another incident side-lined him in Sunday’s final race.
First-time Clio Cup Series entry Tony Verhulst also made a bright start to life in the category with a brace of points finishes.
Westbourne’s first silverware of the season came courtesy of Road Series racer Darren Geeraerts, who boldly steered his race-converted Renaultsport Clio 197 to a brace of third place finishes, putting himself in contention to take the class standings fight to those currently ahead – defending champion Nic Harrison and James Joannou – over the rest of the campaign.
A mechanical fault prevented Sean Thomas from converting his pace into results, but the 16-year old will bounce back and kickstart his championship challenge when the championship reconvenes at Rockingham Motor Speedway near Corby across the weekend of the 13-14 April, 2018.